antigoth24

Hey Frosty, this is not from the La Brea pit unfortunately. This piece came from Mark Knapp in Alaska and was somewhere in the $300-$400 range. Initially when designing the knife I had hoped to find a solid piece of walrus ivory which is typically more expensive, but I'm glad I ended up going with the mammoth beacuse it allowed me to learn how to do a frame handle.

This is a piece I finished up just a few weeks ago and sent out for professional photos that I thought I would share. This was my first frame handle knife and first time using mammoth ivory. The damascus is a mosaic jelly roll Turkish twist with bronze shield, damascus hardware, and domed bronze pin. Specs: Blade length: 12 inches Handle Length: 5 1/2 inches Overall Length:17 1/2 inches Sole Authorship Thanks for looking. All comments, questions, and critiques welcome. -Robert

Thanks everyone!

Thanks guys! And no 2000 isn't a typo :) At each stage of welding I added in 1/8 inch pieces of 1084 and 15n20 leading to the larger and smaller streaks with the jelly roll coming to 2,100 layers roughly by the end.

I made this one to be the center piece in an upcoming show, it's a 2,000 layer modified multi bar jelly roll with a high carbon core. The steels used in the forging of this knife were 1084/1095/W2/ 15n20 it was a blast to put together and so I decided to send it off to Caleb Royer to have it photographed since I have been drooling over his work for quite some time. But here are the specs. Blade Length: 9 inches Blade Width: 2 inches Handle Length: 5 inches Total Length: 14 inches Handle Material: Desert Ironwood Burl/Stabilized Oregon Maple Burl with leather spacers Hardware: stainless steel pins/ mosaic pins Sheath: 8 ounce veg tan. Thanks for looking! Robert

Here is a new one I just finished up today, this one was a fun build that everything just went well on. I actually forged this blade at Dave Dellagardelle's shop last weekend and he was kind enough to give me the piece of wood that became the handle. He had gotten it from Andy Davis who told me is was a museum grade desert ironwood burl and it is a gorgeous piece! I decided to go very rustic on this knife, but I believe to do the rustic look properly it also has to be very clean and I think I was able to get that balance on this knife. Specs: Steel: 1084 hand forged Blade: 8 1/2 inches long Handle: 5 3/4 inches Handle material: Museum grade desert ironwood burl Guard: textured wrought iron and bronze Sheath: Raw hide and veg tanned leather with brass rivets and copper concho Please let me know what you think, all comments are welcome and thank you for looking. Robert

Here is the "go mai" camp chopper I just finished. The blade is composed of five layers, the core is 700 layers of 15n20 and 1084/1095, with the outer jackets being 15n20 and W2. The guard is bronze with copper shield and a curly maple handle. Overall length is 12 1/2 inches. What do you think?

Several months ago I was approached to do a limited edition line of chef's knives for a small company in New York. After much discussion of design they are almost done, all that remains is for the companies logo to be laser etched into the box lids and the logos (their's and mine to be put on the knives). While I was finishing these up I also made another 8 inch chef's knife for my sister as a present for her helping out with my upcoming wedding. All comments and criticisms welcome. Thanks for looking! Specs: Standard model - Overall length: 14 1/2 inches -Blade: 15n20 and 1095 -Handle: Stabilized black ash burl with stainless steel pins. "Executive"? Model: - Overall length: 14 1/2 inches -Blade: 15n20 and 1095 -Handle: Mastodon molar, ebony, and mosaic pins Boxes: Curly maple and curly Mahogany Chef's knife for my sister: Overall length: 14 1/2 inches Blade: W2 Handle: Mastodon molar, snakewood, ebony. Pins: copper tubing and stainless steel Robert

I recently finished up this tomahawk that has a bit of character. I gave it a flint knapped texture in addition to a three bar composite for the edge. The steels are 1084 and 15n20 with a 1018 body. The handle I made out of lignum vitae so it will eventually oxidize a greenish color. Then the handle was just dressed up with some raw hide and feathers. What do you all think? Thanks for looking. Robert

Okay everyone here are the professional photos I just got back today. Jim sure does beautiful work! :)

Thanks for the comments everyone :)

This project was one I had not intended on doing, but in between other projects over the last two days it came together. The blade I forged from a scrap off of a viking sword I am working on and the bronze and copper are also scraps from other projects, the handle is bocote. This blade is only about six inches long and slightly less then 1 1/4 inch wide, slender, and sharp; now, it just needs a good pair of pants before being a true "gentleman's" bowie. All comments are welcome and thank you for looking. Robert

Thank you for the comments everyone the students were fantastic in addition to the scenery. Benton, I will be teaching this course again sometime next year. Robert

This past week I taught my first course at the North House Folk School up in Grand Marais, Minnesota. The topic of the class was the making of a pattern welded puukko knife, handle, and sheath in five days. The course ended up having eight extremely hard working and enthusiastic students a couple of whom had a little smithing experience. The bulk of the class was brand new to knife making which makes me even more proud of how they did. They started with a fifteen layers of 15n20 and 1084 at 1/8 inch thick per layer, working in pairs with strikers they had all achieved two folds by the end of day one and forged their blades the next day. The remaining three days was spent hand filing the blades and sanding them, making the handle, and the sheath. We ended up with a total of 42 hours in the course all said with everyone finishing their knives and all but two finishing their sheathes. One student decided he wanted to do more of a leuku as opposed to a puukko, but I think they came out great and was very proud of them. But now for pictures! The shop: My demonstration knife: And the students knives: This one I was particularly proud of the student for his meticulous handle work: The leuku: Thanks for looking! Robert

Thanks for the comments everyone :) and ianinsa some people prefer square handles, personally a square hammer handle turns my hand into a near arthritic claw.... :D

Several months ago a small chef's knife company approached me about making a limited edition line for them, and after much back and forth we finally agreed on a design using 15n20 and 1084 "san mai" with black ash burl. This is a picture of the 9 inch chef knife they sent me as an example of size and proportions. The blade is fine and it is extremely sharp but the handle is extremely uncomfortable so it required some redesign. The one thing you can't see in the photo is that their chef knife handle is essentially square and completely flat, I also didn't like the 90 degree drop from the handle to the blade so I added a more gently curve. I did also attempt a hamon, and in some of the pictures you can see it peeking through. In person it is a very interesting and apparent effect. I still have to make the display box for this in addition to two more of these knives, one with mammoth ivory scales, but I thought I would share what I had so far and see what everyone thought of it. All comments are welcome and thanks for looking! Robert

Thanks for the comments guys :) Frosty, I know what you mean I always prefer something that is functional first and pretty second. I feel like half of the beauty is in the use.

I was starting to become very embarrassed when people would ask me if I had a knife I made on me and all I would ever have is a crappy knife I made a few years ago that more resembles a shiv then a proper knife, so when I could stand it no more I made myself a simple leuku. This knife is common in northern Europe and often used by the Sammi reindeer herders. I have recently come to enjoy these knives and decided to make one just for me. The blade is 1090 with hamon and measures 5 1/2 inches long, copper ferrule leather spacers and Minnesota birch burl. My fiance and I were hunting pasque flowers this morning when I took this photo, new knife for a new spring. All comments are welcome, but since this one is mine I wasn't too fussy about it being a very nice knife, just simple and utilitarian. It also has a simple brown pouch sheath not shown in the picture as I was too lazy to take it off my belt for the photo :) Robert

So I had a visitor to my shop yesterday who let me try out their nice camera and I was able to get a couple of neat photos of the chopper and a couple of other knives. Hope you guys enjoy. Now there is no going back for me on getting a nice camera... :)

Thanks!

Thanks for the comments guys :)

Here is a project I've been working on for the past few days I wanted to try my hand at making a cutting competition style knife and this was the result. I used 1084 and clay coated it for the hamon and the handle is a laminate of water buffalo horn, bocote, black ash burl, and dyed curly maple. I am going to be making a wooded South East Asian style of sheath for it and will post photos later when that is done. All comments are welcome and thanks for looking. Robert OAL: 14 1/2 inches Blade Length: 10 inches Blade width: 1 3/4 inch Handle length: 4 1/2 inches

Thanks guys :)

I'm sure there are several fans of the show Vikings on here (myself included) which was where I drew some inspiration for this seax. I still have to complete the sheath and will post final photos at that point, but I liked it so much I couldn't resist sharing it on here. After doing a ton a production work last month I figured it was time for a skill building project, and decided on attempting a wolf's tooth pattern seax. I then decided to make it more complicated by doing a seven bar composite seax (again for those that don't know I don't have a press or power hammer and this is all done with my 3 1/2 lb forging hammer). So just because it is a weird construction method here is a picture of what I mean by seven bar composite. The edge geometry on this drawing isn't to scale just a rough guideline for following while forging. The vertical bar is the central core of wrought iron, while each of the four bars (two per side of the wrought iron) are 10 layers of 15n20 and 1080. These four bars and the wrought iron core are welded into a billet which is then welded to the edge billet which is made of two billets. The teeth are 1095 and the back bar is L6, 1080, and wrought iron. The teeth and back bar contain about 20 or so layers all together and forged together well, although I ended up not having enough tooth material and lost a couple of teeth in the end knife towards the back edge which was a real bummer, but lesson learned and the edge hardened just fine so no problems there. Because I do my pattern welding by hand I often get creative about how I assemble billets to make things easier on myself. In this case making 1/2 wide x 3/4 inch thick, x 13 inch long billets. This next photo shows what will become the spine (five bar composite) and the edge billet. Then this was where is got tricky and why I lost a couple teeth, welding on edge at 1/4 inch thickness for a 3 inch wide billet can be tricky and it did fight me for a bit. All told it took me about eight hours of forge work from start to finish to forge this blade. But eventually it all came together and after ruining a beautiful piece of 6,000 year old bog oak and then spending another $60 on some top shelf black ash burl I ended up with a size-able seax. I haven't taken the final measurements yet but it is sitting right around 15/16 inches overall length and the edge is about 1 3/4 wide at the widest with a 1/4 inch spine at the ferrule. The ferrule is carved bronze (a first for me and extremely basic) and then this beautiful piece of black ash burl. Over all I am very pleased with it and it was a great learning experience, with the sheath still to go. I'll post pictures with the sheath when it is completed but thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Robert